Flowers: Why Josh Shapiro is wrong on priest grand jury case
I like Josh Shapiro. A lot. In fact, I think he is such a vast improvement over our past Attorneys General, especially the one with the Breck girl hair and Pepsodent smile that I sometimes pinch myself, incredulous that we actually have an ethical public servant in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, someone with no personal grudges or discernible conflicts of interest.
And yes, there is a “but” about to come in the next paragraphs, but it’s important that my appreciation for our attorney general is clear. He is an exceptional public servant.
OK, now the operative “but.”
Shapiro has written a letter to Pope Francis, asking him to persuade the plaintiffs who are suing to keep a grand jury report secret (you know, the one about the alleged sex abuse in most of the Catholic dioceses in the state) to give up their legal fight. He is going over the heads of middle management, bypassing cardinals and archbishops, and aiming at the CEO (“Chief Ecclesiastical Officer.”)
When I first heard the news, I smiled and whispered to myself, “Good luck with that.” I’ve written letters, hosted radio shows and penned columns begging Francis to come out and make a statement about the horrific election in Ireland, which will lead to the legalization of abortion, beseeching him to come out forcefully in favor of little boys who were denied lifesaving care by British hospitals, and practically screaming WTF? (What the Francis??!!) when he made complimentary comments about Fidel Castro when the despot died. He eventually came out with some “better late than never” observations on abortion and the little boys, but it was too little and much too late.
So when I heard that Josh Shapiro wanted him to snap into action and tell those uppity plaintiffs to simply waive their constitutional rights and let themselves be slandered and defamed without putting up a legitimate defense, I felt kind of bad for the A.G. Josh, I thought, he’ll get back to you before Vatican III. And then I thought that it was highly inappropriate for our chief prosecutor to be asking for the pope’s assistance in essentially urging those whose names and reputations would be seriously damaged by the public release of the report to simply suck it up for the good of the team.
Lately, I’ve heard a lot of Catholics say that our church just needs to issue a giant and undifferentiated mea culpa, and agree that all of the allegations that have been made are true. They argue that even if there are good priests out there, quite clearly the majority, we need to have a clean slate and admit our generational shame. That means allowing anyone who claims that he or she was victimized, even decades ago, to tell their stories without challenge.
I have written about these attempts to hold the church accountable, and this broad brush approach to “justice,” which sometimes looks far too much like retribution. Just because someone told their story to a grand jury does not mean that this story, with all of its possible human repercussions for those who were not able to defend themselves years after the fact, should be made public.
We are told that the victims feel doubly victimized by the fact that the grand jury report has been sealed. We are told that they need to be able to have some closure, by speaking out about their pain.
And I know this is going to get me in a lot of hot holy water, but my response to that is: The criminal justice system is not designed to provide therapy for self-professed victims. It is designed to convict criminals. This investigative proceeding was never going to be able to result in prosecutions due to statutes of limitations, so there is no actual need for it to be made public.
The reason we are continually given is that it will be cathartic for the alleged victims. OK, then, issue a report, heavily redacted and with no names or other biographical information included. The stories can be told, the victims vindicated, the accused protected. The Supremes indicated Friday that this is how they’re headed, ordering a redacted copy of the report to be released within the next few weeks. Score one for fairness.
But they don’t want that. They want the whole shebang, and they want to be able to shame those who they could not otherwise sue in a court of law. And now we have someone asking for the pope’s help in doing it.
I’d be worried if I thought Francis would actually do something. As it is, past experience shows he will just send back a nice note to our attorney general saying,l “Who am I to judge?” and we’ll be back to square one.
Hopefully, that will include figuring out how to give as much consideration to the rights of the accused as we do to the feelings of the accusers. Christine Flowers is an attorney and Delaware County resident. Her column appears every Sunday. Email her at cf lowers1961@gmail. com.